


Black tea

by Sneal



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Birthday Presents, Character's Name Spelled as Hanji, Developing Relationship, F/M, Female Hange Zoë, Levi's Birthday (Shingeki no Kyojin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 07:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15725046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sneal/pseuds/Sneal
Summary: On the 25th December, Hanji spent most of the day locked in her lab. This was not a weird behaviour for her, everyone knew that when she was doing her research she could lose the track of time and disappear for hours. That day, though, she just spent half of that time for her study, the rest was a desperate attempt to understand if that tea was a good or a bad idea.





	Black tea

Hanji was writing some important papers about the first titans captured by the Survey Corps in ages.

“Squad Leader!”

She had been hurting those two poor puppies, but it was worth it because she made some interesting descoveri-.

“What are you doing?!”

Moblit threw a ball of paper at her head, distracting her from her thoughts.

“I have been calling you for half an hour!”

“That’s no excuse for throwing papers at your superior officer”, and she underlined _superior officer_ because sometimes it seemed that he forgot it. She was thinking of throwing it back right at his forehead, but before she could do it, she noticed that someone else was in the room.

“Ah, Petra! What can I do for you?”

She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, but Moblit answered before her, “She has knocked at your door seven times today and you have never bothered to open. She came to me because she was worried for you!”

Hanji gave a big smile to the girl, “Oh, Petra! I was just working.”

“And I’m sorry to disturb you, Hanji-san…” Petra tried to get nearer her desk, dodging all the books and things scattered on the floor. The Captain would get a heart attack if he saw that room, “Actually I’m not here to talk you about a serious matter.”

“No, you can speak to her”, said Moblit with a firm tone, “It will be good for her to listen to something not linked to titans.”

“Today you’re particularly pushy, aren’t you?” said Hanji.

“No, I’m particularly stressed.”

“Oh, come on, stop being dramatic”, Hanji got up and pat him on his back, “I’ll make you happy and I’ll listen to Petra, in return you’ll help me with those documents.”

“Why in return? You can order it.”

“How boring you are… I just wanted to behave like a good leader who appreciates the efforts of her subordinates and tries to build a pleasant and satisfying working place.”

Moblit gave her a look, “I’ll just keep quiet.”

“Right”, said Hanji and she went back to her desk, “What is this not-so-important thing, Petra?”

Petra felt pity for Moblit, after all she wasn’t much luckier than him with her leader. There were some moments when she thought that maybe it wasn’t that bad to test the pain threshold of titans rather than the pain threshold of her back when she swept the floor.

“It will be Captain’s birthday soon and we were thinking of giving him a gift. Since you’ve known him for so long maybe you can help us.”

Petra and the rest of the group have been talking about that for days. Eld was sure that they should give him some cleaning supplies. Gunther didn’t agree and he said that it wasn’t really nice to give as a birthday gift certain things. Oluo proposed a scarf, -he had found a pretty cool shop which sold any kind of scarf-, but Petra thought that it was stupid to give him a scarf since he had tons of those white weird scarves. They could buy him another one with a different shape or model, but what if he doesn’t like it? She suggested buying something linked to tea, his other huge passion besides cleaning.

“A gift for Levi?” Hanji scratched her chin, “Well, it surely seems a difficult mission.”

 

***

 

The soldiers didn’t really like that shorty who had just joined the army. Neither did Hanji. And that showed how cranky that guy could be.

Anyway, even though he was as funny as a needle in a finger, Hanji couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for him.

He got in the army in an unconventional way, to say the least, and not exactly for noble reasons. He was just a thief, a bit stupid too, since he hoped to have a better future for himself and his friends by joining the Survey Corps and everyone knows that “future” and “Survey Corps” are two concepts that do not get along very well. Unfortunately, his friends learned it in the worst way possible.

Despite everything, Levi decided to stay in the Survey Corps, for reasons that Hanji couldn’t understand at first.

If she were in his shoes, she would have more than just one reason to go away and hate Erwin. For some time she thought that he stayed to seek his revenge against him.

“I don’t think that he’s that kind of person.”

“How do you know that, Erwin?”

“I know because I saw how he acts and how is mind works, Hanji. If he had wanted to kill me he could have done it during the expedition during which his comrades died. He could have said that I was eaten by a titan, no one would have suspected anything. Well, he tried actually, but at the end he understood that his energies could be used for a better purpose” Erwin gave her one of his smile, “I’m happy that you’re worried for my safety, but believe me, Levi is much simpler than what you think.”

“Simpler?”

She didn’t think that someone who had no respect for hierarchy was simple. She wasn’t the perfect soldier herself, but hierarchy was hierarchy and they had to respect it.

On the contrary, he had just joined them, he hadn’t even attended the official training, but still he dared to call his superiors with their first names, without the proper courtesy. And he was particularly rude with her, just because _a couple of times_ she dared to befriend that shorty who was always alone with his gloomy expression.

Once she asked him to eat with her, another time to train together, another time she tried to have a chat. But it was as if he build a wall higher than the actual Walls and he opened his mouth just to tell her that he didn’t like her. Each time he would answer her with utter indifference or with insults.

He kept saying that she wasn’t clean, that she had shitty hair, that her clothes were stained with shit, that she looked like shit. In other words, she was a shit in his eyes.

She gave up. It was impossible to get along with everyone. Sooner or later she had to find a nasty person.

Too bad that that person had to be the most amazing soldier she had ever seen.

 

After some time, she realised that maybe Erwin was right. He didn’t want to get revenge, on the contrary he seemed to feel for him a weird form of respect. Blind and absolute respect, stuffed with some insult, but still respect. He followed to the letter every order, even the most dangerous, without questioning it. Well, sometimes he would grumble something, but Hanji never thought that he was actually criticizing him.

If Erwin said that something was right, then Levi thought that too and he didn’t need any explanation. Erwin himself was already a good reason.

This behaviour annoyed her: she was the woman of questions, even those no one dared to ask. She has always taken everything with a grain of salt and she’d always thought that it was necessary to understand everything and to form a personal opinion. That’s why when Erwin explained her his plans, they could spend hours discussing it, while with Levi few words were enough.

 

The months were passing by, but their relationship wasn’t improving. Anyway, at least now he talked to her.

“You look as if you’re trying to take a shit. A very hard one.”

He said those words, one day, while she was focused on the documents for the next mission. He startled her. She almost preferred when he didn’t speak to her.

“What?”

He didn’t answered and she got back to check Erwin’s plan, no, Shadis’ plan. Well, the plan developed by Erwin and approved by the Commander.

“What is wrong, four-eyes?”

“You’re talking a lot today.”

“You’re not talking at all.”

Hanji sighed, but decided to be honest, “This is a suicide plan. Classic Erwin.”

He was leaning on the door, his hands in his pockets, eyes narrowed.

“If he thinks that it is a good plan there must be a reason.”

Hanji thought for a second that Erwin sent him just to convince her. Erwin could play those little games, but she didn’t know if Levi would.

“You trust him, eh?”

Levi looked at her without any particular emotion.

“Yes”, he answered plainly, as if it was obvious. As if she asked him if the sky is blue or if titans eat humans.

Hanji looked back to her papers. What could she do? If Shadis gave the ok, it was useless to overthink it. That was the plan, looking for other options was not possible anymore.

“Don’t you?”

That question took her by surprise because he asked it after a long silence. She even thought he left.

“I… yes, I think”, she said, “Maybe not as much as you.”

Erwin was smart, a brilliant strategist. But he wasn’t perfect. Every plan was good until now, but what about the next?

They didn’t talk anymore for that day.

When Hanji got back to her room, she glanced to the, often disregarded, mirror she had on her dresser. She saw a woman with a frown, narrowed eyes and lips closed in a thin line. The face of someone trying so hard to do something impossible. Like a constipated person. That night she spent several minutes looking at her reflection who was laughing for that silly thing. His sense of humour wasn’t so bad after all.

 

Erwin’s plan proved to be brilliant and Hanji decided to trust him more in the future.

Several days later, she was doing a less dangerous mission. She had gone with Mike to buy some stuff for the army, mostly food, but Hanji wanted to take the opportunity to look for some tools for her lab.

Mike was sniffing some peaches and Hanji decided to go in a spice shop. She had run out of coffee, so she needed to get it.

But when she set foot in the shop her attention was drawn by something else. A black porcelain box. The owner said that it was a box to store the tea. Hanji wasn’t a fan of tea, she didn’t hate it, but she was a coffee person.

“It’s the last one, we will get the others in January.”

Then she remembered. She couldn’t understand how, maybe for the tea or whatever, but she remembered that Levi’s birthday was on the 25th December. Why did she remember that idiot’s birthday when she barely remembered hers?

So what now? Usually Hanji was very happy to celebrate her friends’ birthdays, when she remembered them. She liked buying them a little gift to show that she was happy to work with that person, that they were doing an amazing job and she implicitly congratulated for the fact that they survived another year in the Survey Corps.

But Levi… probably he was the kind of person who didn’t like those things. She could already picture the disgusted face he would show her if she gave him a present.

“It’s black tea”, said the owner. She opened the box to show her some tealeaves.

“Uhm? Why? Are there other colours?”

For Hanji tea was just tea. A brownish water in a cup. Actually, sometimes Levi babbled about different types of tea.

“Yes, there’s the red tea, the green, the white, the yellow…”

“Really?” Hanji giggled, “I didn’t know there are so many types.”

Levi seemed more human only with a cup of tea in his hands. She saw him a couple of times while he was preparing his tea. He wasn’t just a guy preparing a tea, he looked like a priest officiating a ceremony.

“Do you think it could be a nice present for a birthday?”

“Oh, yes!” the owner’s eyes shone, “This is a high quality tea, one of the best! And its box is so elegant as you can see.”

“I can see it, but…”, was she really sure about it? She needed that money for other things. She could save it for that microscope she saw in that shop nearby.

“If they love tea, nothing is better than this.”

Well, he really loved tea, but maybe he hated the person who was going to give him.

“I’m sure that your significant other will be happy!”

Hanji furrowed her eyebrows.

“Who?”

“Your significant other.”

“What? No, I think that you’re misunderstanding”, she said, “It’s for… a friend”, she hesitated. Could she really consider him as a friend?

The owner laughed, “Everyone says that.”

“It’s the truth!” the owner shook her head, “Whatever, just give me this tea.”

 

On the 25th December, Hanji spent most of the day locked in her lab. This was not a weird behaviour for her, everyone knew that when she was doing her research, she could lose the track of time and disappear for hours. That day, though, she just spent half of that time for her study, the rest was a desperate attempt to understand if that tea was a good or a bad idea.

She had the feeling that she forgot something, but decided to ignore it to solve the more pressing question of Levi’s gift. She sighed and gave up. She had already spent her money and for that tea she renounced to her beloved coffee, so at this point she might as well give it to him. If he insulted her it wouldn’t be so bad, he’d always done that, what would change now?

She got up from her chair and opened the door of her lab. Luckily (or unluckily), Levi was walking in the hall. She saw him turning a corner and Hanji run toward him.

“Levi!” she yelled.

Levi didn’t even look at her.

“No”, he said with his usual tone.

“But I haven’t said anything yet!”

“I’m not helping you with your experiments.”

“But who has ever mentioned my experiments?” Hanji tried to catch up to him “Hey, stop!”

Finally, he decided to give her a bit of his attention.

“What do you want?”

She wanted to break that box on his head, but instead she straightened her arm, showing him what she had in her hand, “Happy birthday”, she said as if it was the worst insult.

Levi gazed the black box.

“What is it?”

“It’s your birthday”, she explained, “Usually at birthdays people give gifts. Is that clear or do you want me to spell it out for you?”

Levi stared at her, with a frown.

“Do you think I’m a moron?”  
“Yeah”, it slipped out of her mouth. She was waiting for an insult or for one of his glare. She got only the insult.

“You are a moron”, he took the box and opened it, “Instead of thinking about this bullshit, do some training to save your sorry ass from titans.”

“I train every day!”

“Or think about your shitty experiments.”

Ah, there he was again.

“They’re not shi-“

Wait. He just said to work harder on her experiments, didn’t he? Maybe deep down, was he saying, in his own way, that he thought they were important?

“Well, it’s not like it took me four months to take it. Actually I saw it by chance the other day when I went with Mike…”

“It’s my favourite.”

“…to do some shopping for… what did you just say?”

“Black tea is my favourite.”

Levi was carefully looking at the leaves.

“Oh, really?” Hanji was a bit confused. She wasn’t ready for that reaction, “So you like it?”

“Shitty Four-Eyes, I’ve just said that it’s my favourite.”

He liked it. Maybe there was a little possibility to improve their relationship.

“Ah, that’s good”, Hanji chuckled and scratched her head, “Good… good.”

A rather embarrassed silence fell over them. But that could be her opportunity, she could see a breach in the wall.

“I’ve been thinking…” Hanji looked him with a shy smile.

“What?”

She approached him.

“I’ve been thinking that you hate me in a way.”

Levi frowned.

“Why?”

“Because you behave…” like an asshole, but she didn’t say it, “So you don’t hate me?”

“You’re a pain in the ass”, he said, “Often”, he corrected himself, “Almost always.”

“But you don’t hate me?”

Levi wasn’t good with those kind of things. Feelings and niceties weren’t his cup of tea, he would have rather run away or hide behind his deadpan face and answer with monosyllables or with insults.

But she wouldn’t give up. Other people fled as soon as they met his eyes. She seemed immune though. If he hadn’t given her what she wanted today, she would have tried again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, with the same insistence she had with her fucking experiments.

Maybe now she deserved something in return though. The truth was that he wasn’t expecting that Hanji would remember his birthday or that she would notice how much he loved tea. She always looked so absentminded. Maybe just for this time he could make the effort to be sociable. At least with her.

Levi let out a long sigh, “I’m shitty with words, I think.”

It was a problem he had with everyone. He had accepted the fact that most part of humanity couldn’t understand him, “I’m sorry if you got that impression, shitty four-eyes.”

Hanji widened her eyes. He admired the way her expression could change in a couple of seconds.

“You’re sorry?”

“You’re also deaf now, not just blind?”

“I’ve never heard you saying sorry!”

“You’re a moron.”

Hanji turned around and leaned back on the wall. She closed her eyes and folded her arms. She looked in deep thought. It felt stupid standing like that, with some tea in his hand, staring at her.

Then she opened her eyes and she smiled.

“I got it”, she said.

“That you’re a moron?”

“Nope. But I got it”, she repeated, “I got you.”

Levi nodded, not sure how to answer to that.

“Hanji-san!” Moblit’s voice reverberated in the desert hall.

Only then, Hanji thought for a second that maybe it could seem strange that two soldiers were alone, talking quietly, close.

But Moblit didn’t have any particular reaction when he joined them.

“You forgot the reunion! The Commander and the other Squad Leaders are waiting for you!”

That’s what she forgot! They had to discuss the results of the mission!

Moblit was already going back to the meeting room, “Wait, where are you going?” screamed Hanji, “We have to take the documents!”

“You don’t have them with you?”

Moblit changed direction fast and went to her laboratory.

“Damn”, she followed him.

“Hanji”, Levi called her, with her name. Weird.

“Uhm?” she turned to him and she couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing.

“Thank you”, and she couldn’t believe what her hears heard.

Hanji felt a strange warm at the centre of her chest. All of this went far beyond any prediction. She was speechless.

Levi was _smiling_. It was a little smile, the corners of his lips just a bit up. If someone who didn’t know him saw him in that moment, they wouldn’t even notice it.

She has been trying so hard to make him laugh. If some tea was enough, she would have bought him tons of it.

Maybe Erwin was right.

It was a good idea! It was the best idea buying him that tea. And who cared if she didn’t have her coffee, she could live without it!

“Ah… ehm… you’re welcome”, she couldn’t help but smile too.

“Hanji-san! Where are the documents for the reunion? Here’s full of papers!” yelled Moblit from her lab.

“You’ ve just earned your presents for your next birthdays”, she said to Levi, then she caught up with her assistant “Moblit don’t touch anything, damn it! Those papers are very important!”

Levi looked at her confused. He would try that tea that evening. It seemed a high-quality tea.

 

***

 

 “Why don’t you buy him a cup or a teapot? Or a broom? Or something to clean? A book would be a good idea too… a book about tea…”

“Hanji-san if you start brainstorming I don’t think you’ll help Petra…”

“…or a book about cleaning? A book about the cleaning of teapots? Does that exist? Well, anyway he doesn’t have high demands.”

Petra lost it at the book about tea.

“What if he doesn’t like it? Ah, I hope he doesn’t consider childish gifts and birthday parties”, Petra said. Maybe before thinking about a gift it would be better to understand if he wanted a gift in the first place.

“No, he doesn’t consider them childish” she said, fixing her glasses, “Levi seems an impossible and unapproachable man, but he’s much easier than what it seems.”

“What do you mean?”

Hanji had accepted with resignation this job. She was the one who had to explain to other people Levi’s weird behaviours, his cryptic words, his silence, his murderous looks. Sooner or later, she would have asked for a salary for this job.

“Even if he insults you it doesn’t mean he hates you, his sense of humour is pretty weird and usually linked to feces; well actually you need a strong stomach to be next to him… anyway, he’ll be happy to know that you think about what he’ll define as bullshit and even if he’ll say that it would have been better if you had done more important things, well, don’t believe him.”

Petra listened carefully.

“That’s why I say he’s a simple person. Once you learn his way of expressing himself, he’ll become an open book and you’ll understand that behind a shit he hides his affection for you.”

That was the truth. Now, Hanji could say that she understands Levi better than Mike or Erwin, even though she has known them longer than the shorty.

“I know that deep down the Captain is a kind person”, Petra said.

“Very deep down”, Moblit whispered.

“Too deep down, Hanji laughed, “But I guess that the more you know people the more you spot their flaws, don’t you? With him it is the contrary: the more I spend time with him, the more I think that that midget is better than all of us.”

“Maybe you’re right”, Petra nodded, “I’ll remember it, Hanji-san”, she bowed her head and saluted, “Sorry for the bother.”

Moblit walked her to the door.

“What a good girl”, Hanji said, as soon as Moblit closed the door.

Maybe her sweetness was exactly what that shorty needed to loosen up a bit. She was glad he found some subordinates who admired him and cared about him.

“Yes, Hanji-san. She is very into her job.”

“I think she’s more into her Captain” she winked at Moblit.

“Only her?” Moblit sighed.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing” Moblit took a chair and sat in front of her, “So, these papers?”

 

***

 

Levi was in the kitchen, drinking his night tea. The soldiers he chose last year to be part of his squad decided to use their time to look for a gift for his birthday. That cup was pretty, but if they had trained, they would have had more chances to survive. Who cared about a cup if they weren’t able to defend themselves against a titan?

They were already very strong, it’s true, but no one could foresee what could happen in the future and they had the duty to not regret the time spent without training.

Anyway, that white cup highlighted the colour of his tea. They made a good choice.

“Ah, geez!” he suddenly heard a voice, “What time is it?”

“It’s two, four-eyes.”

“Two?” Hanji looked like a corpse resurrected after days decomposition, “Oh, it’s night.”

“You thought it was morning?”

“I came here to have lunch”, she giggled.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t eat anything.”

“You know, I don’t remember. Sawney and Bean give me a lot of ideas and theories so…”

He stopped her before it was too late, bringing back the topic on what was important.

“Is your assistant useless?”

“What are you saying? When he’s not screaming at me to stay back, he’s very useful.”

“I’m not talking about that, shitty four-eyes. You’re disgusting.”

She hadn’t washed in days, it was clear. Her hair looked like the shit of his horse and her clothes were terrible. One of the duties of her stupid assistant was taking care of her primary needs since she couldn’t take care of on her own.

Maybe he had to talk with him a bit again.

Hanji laughed and opened the pantry to look for some food.

Levi glared at her, “Wash. Now.”

“But I wanna eat!”

“Bathe.”

“After I eat.”

Levi couldn’t stand the sight of that filth. Her dirtiness was a problem that he had to solve as soon as possible.

“Don’t force me to stop drinking my tea and drag you to the bathroom, Hanji.”

Hanji closed the pantry, “Ok, but keep calm, I can go on my own without any violence.”

Levi nodded, “That’s good.”

She slowly walked to the door and Levi sipped his tea again.

“Shit!” Hanji yelled and he almost choke on his tea “It’s two in the night!”

Levi coughed a bit, “What the fuck are you yelling for?”

“It was your birthday two hours ago”, she said in a lower voice.

Actually, he thought it was weird that that stupid didn’t yelled happy birthday or give him some shitty gift. But since when she had captured those titans, it was hard even to just see her around.

“Sorry, I forgot it.”

“The most important thing is that you don’t forget that you have to bathe, shitty four-eyes.”

“So, what did they give you?”

“Uhm?”

“Petra asked me an advice a couple of days ago.”

Levi raised the cup to show it to her.

“Oh, that’s nice”, Hanji smiled but then she got serious again, “Sorry, this year I think I can’t give you anything.”

Levi sighed, “You’re broke again.”

“Yep.”

“If you want to give me a gift, go bathe now.”

She smiled, “Yes, yes”, and she left the kitchen.

Petra mentioned the fact that she asked Hanji’s help for his gift. Levi was surprised that she managed to have a dialogue with her that wasn’t related to titans, since in that period her mind was completely focused on her research.

The girl bothered to tell him how Hanji talked about him because Petra thought that he would be happy about that.

That shitty four-eyes. At the end of the day she did give him a gift in her own way, and she wasn’t even aware of that.

Levi drank his tea and went to check what there was in the pantry.

Some vegetables. A soup would be good for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! First things first: this is a translation of one of my fics written in Italian, so English is not my first language (if you see any mistake just tell me, it will help me improve my English!).  
> The fic was inspired by this scene, which is part of an aot video game you can find here https://youtu.be/kw2Knk5dKXc  
> I hope you enjoyed it :)


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